New ArtsQuest festival to get second year

An entertainment festival that ArtsQuest started this year will be back for a second year, it has been announced.

The second SteelStacks Improv Comedy Festival will be held Jan. 31 at ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks, the organization says on its website, www.artsquest.org.

Confirmed for the festival is The Upright Citizens Brigade, a national improv company that has included some of the top performers and writers in the country, and which headlined the festival’s first run in February.

Also in the lineup will be Jimmy Carrane, a Chicago-based improve performer and teacher who will use the festival for a live taping of his Improv Nerd podcast.

In all, the festival will feature more than 12 hours of “non-stop improv comedy,” the website says. It says more details about the festival will be announced soon.

The website also is seeking improv troupes interested in performing at the festival; an application form on the site says the deadline to apply is Dec. 10, with a reduced application fee through Nov. 1. Jurying and notifications will take place in mid-December.

Information for audience tickets has not been announced. Tickets for the first festival were $24 for the general public, $20 for students and ArtsQuest members and $15 for groups of 50 or more and went on sale in late October.

ArtsQuest announced the first improv festival after purging three of the music festivals at its south Bethlehem SteelStacks in a cost-cutting move.

Among its alumni are Aziz Ansari, Bobby Moynihan and Horatio Sanz. The troupe was chosen "Hot Farm Team" by Rolling Stone magazine and "Best Comedy Club" by AOL, while the UCB Theatre in New York has won Time Out's Best Comedy Theater Award.

Carrane is the host of Improv Nerd and co-author of “Improvising Better: A Guide to the Working Improviser.” He’s also the former host of Studio 312 on Chicago Public Radio and was an original member of The Annoyance Theater, Armando at iO Chicago and a member of Carl and The Passions and Burning Desires.

He has taught at The Second City, IO-Chicago, The Annoyance and Victory Gardens.

Carrane also will teach Art of Slow Comedy workshops. The price of the workshops was not announced.